


Cabinet Man

by xXxdemon_bois_loverxXx



Category: Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware - Fandom
Genre: Animal Death, Based on a lemon demon song tho you don't need to know it to get the story, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Bullying, Depression, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Now with lovely art!, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:33:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25398475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXxdemon_bois_loverxXx/pseuds/xXxdemon_bois_loverxXx
Summary: You can't win me, I can't be beatI won't hurt you unless you cheatYou can't see me behind the screenI'm half human and half machine---Fealing nostalgic Gorden gets a old gaming cabinet from his childhood.  But for some reason it and the other old technology he got are acting weird. Like there alive, but that cant be true! ...Right?A Lemon demon song fic.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	1. Nostalgia

**Author's Note:**

> Got no beta (tho I probably need one) so be warned this is probably riddled with spelling errors. 
> 
> Injoy the ride

Nostalgia was quite a strong feeling when it hit you. It brings you back to simpler times, when you thought everything was perfect in life. We're the only worries you had in life was if you wanted to spend your $5 allowance at an arcade or at a candy store. That the biggest moments in your life was when a new game came out, and if you could bug your parents to rent it for you from A Movie Rental. 

A time when you can spend a bunch of money on quarters in a game that you don't even own. On an arcade cabinet that you can barely remember the name of. That you had forgotten about for years before you just suddenly remembered about .

What was it called again?

Gordon stared at his TV as he tried thinking about the name. It was something about aliens attacking? And they're being military? A demon or something? Something along those lines.

He could vaguely put the pieces together in his mind. Seeing how things played out in the game. It was all very blurry to him but he knew it was real. It had to be.

The game's name was on the tip of his tongue but he just couldn't fully say it. It honestly just made him slightly annoyed. Why could he not remember one of his favourite gaming cabinets from when he was a kid.

Gordon sighed and looked over at his son. He was currently playing on his own gaming system. This was what in fact made Gordon remember about his favourite childhood game. Seeing his son sit there and try and beat the game made him remember about his own experiences.

Joshua had recently gotten the system for his birthday. He had been playing it nonstop since he had gone in it at hisparty. Joshua's mom , gordon's ex-wife, had bought it for him.

The two had been divorced for a few years now. They used to fight day and night over the simplest of things, and it clearly made Joshua upset . So they decided to split up. Though the two were at least semi friendly now. Or as friendly as you can be with your ex-wife.

It was much better now compared to back then. The only problem was that Gordon only saw his son on the weekends. Because of court orders Joshua stayed with his mother during the week. That meant Gordon only really saw his son for barely two days a week, even if that.

He would obviously prefer being around his son more often but this made sense. He was busy during the week day and couldn't adequately take care of Joshua. Only on the weekend was he off and could hang out with a son. So that's just how it stayed for the last few years.

It was Surprising how good Joshua actually was at the game. He was only 10 years old and seemed to be completing it decently. Games these days must be so much easier compared to when Gordon was a child. 

A knock at the door brat Gordon's attention away from his son.

Oh yes it's 6 pm time for Joshua's mother to pick him up. Gordon was actually pretty sad that his time with his son was over. This weekend was particularly short to him . Probably because half of it was taken up with Joshua's birthday, and on the other half of it, his son mostly wanted to play on his video game system.

But either way he was happy that he got to see his son.

“Okay you heard the knock, your mom's here,” Gordon said as he stood up, getting the attention of Joshua.

His son whined as he got up from the couch. “Why can't I just stay all week with you? Mom so mean, she makes me broccoli!” 

A small smile appeared on Gordon's face as he realized that his son preferred him. He tried to hide it as he answered his son, “You know Mom needs to take you home. Daddy has work to do tomorrow and you need to go to school.”

His son pouted as he started to pack his bag in defeat. Well his son was doing that, he walked to the front door. He presumed he had to open the front door for his ex-wife.

“Hello Gordon. How was your weekend with Joshua?” his ex-wife Elizabeth asked once he opened the door for her. She at least seemed in a good mood.

“Well you should know what happened for half of it, you were at Joshua's birthday party.” Gordon replied back. “And the other half of it was just him playing on his Switch. He didn't want to go out and do anything with me so we just stayed at home.” Gordon leaned slightly on the door as he turned around to look at his son putting on his shoes.

“That's fine. He's just excited about the new system, he's been bugging me forever to get it for him.” Elizabeth says as she grabs her son's hand. Joshua was obviously now ready to go home with his mother.

They started walking towards her car and then they were gone.

Gone until next weekend when Gordon will see his favourite little boy again. Hopefully next weekend his son would want to actually do something with him. That would be nice. Maybe they could go to a park.

Gordon closed the door and walked back to the couch. He tried staring at the TV for a second but realized he was not interested in what it was showing. He just turned it off and left himself in silence.

Man it was way too quiet. Without his son around everything seems so much darker. Like the light of his life wasn't there anymore.

His house needed something to make it less quiet. Something to brighten it up and make it more fun when his son wasn't around. Make him feel less sad once his son left for the weekend.

Then Gordon was struck with a crazy idea. Maybe he should look into that gaming cabinet he remembered as a childhood and could buy it possibly. He had a good job, so he knew he could fully afford it.

If he lucked out he could possibly get the original model but probably just a newer version of it. He would be fine with settling with that if he had to.

The problem was he still couldn't remember the name of the gaming cabinet!

He had to do with....

Oh that's right it had to do with a security guard. A security guard protecting a science lab from an alien invasion. Or something along those lines. But there's one thing he knew for certain, the main character was a security guard.

It seems like an odd choice now that Gordon thought about it, for a Security Guard to be the main character. That didn't really matter though, he remembered enough that he could possibly Google and find out the name of the gaming cabinet.

So that's precisely what he did. Googling different phrases involving a security guard and a gaming cabinet. Which unsurprisingly didn't yield bear many responses.

There were no Wiki articles or anything of the like pertaining to the game he was looking for. He even looked through a list of all the gaming cabinets that came out in the usa in the 80s. This obviously was to no avail.

The only thing he even found when Googling those two words together was a news article. About a security guard responding to a break-in at the mall in an arcade. Coming in when the security alarm was tripped only to find two dead teenagers inside the arcade. There were no known suspects for they're killers too.

How did Gordon not know about this? It seemed to happen at the video game arcade he used to go to as a kid, Rocket Wrcade. The event happened a few years ago so maybe he just wasn't paying attention at the time.

Anyways that wasn't what he was looking for. Even though it was very disheartening hearing that people had died in one of his favourite places to go as a kid. So Gordon continued on looking in a vain hope of finding the gaming cabinet.

He looked for a while more and just before he was about to give up he noticed something interesting. Not something on Wiki or any GameFAQs forum. It was on Kijiji.

One of the suggested links when he was Googling the praises was a Kijiji ad. It was saying something about selling a bunch of old technology, including a gaming cabinet. 

So Gordon decided to click on the link. He was immediately hit with nostalgia as soon as he saw the picture. It was exactly what he was looking for. The colours and designs of the cabinet came rushing back to him. The one in the picture was exactly how he remembered it.

It had quite a normal layout for a gaming cabinet. Two buttons and a stick on both sides of the cabinet for up to two players to play. It had a relatively dark colours of black blue and purple, and pictures of the main character on the side, obviously a security guard. He was fighting some type of alien monster. It actually looked not official, like someone just painted it. That's why he probably couldn't find anything about it.

On the front it had its name. Apparently it had a quite boring name of Security Quest. Now that Gordon thought about it, that was a familiar name. It's understandable why he forgot the name, it was quite generic.

Who made it then? Can someone even make there own gaming cabinet?

Gordon didn't know but that didn't matter much right now. He had already found the cabinet and knew he could buy it. It didn't seem that expensive. It was only priced at $500, and that was including all the other things with it.

The listing just mentioned that the owner had to move and couldn't bring any of the things with him so he was selling it off. That he needed it all gone as soon as possible.

So Gordon sent them a message about meeting up and buying it, if the person had not already sold it. He really hoped it wasn't just a left open kijiji, it had only been posted a few days ago.

Well he was waiting for a response, he looked more at the Kijiji posting. Specifically at the other things that we're in the listening 

Most of the things that were with it made sense, being that they were more gaming things. A Game Boy and a Nintendo Entertainment System. They were not something he really needed but he would enjoy the nasrala factor of having them. Joshua will probably like to try them out.

The other things were weird though, namely an old Medical Pager and an apple Macintosh. Plus a weird thing called a Tamagotchi that he had never heard of before. 

Why were they included with this? Maybe he could just ask to buy only the game related stuff. He had no real interest in an old pager and an old computer he had no use in.

He got an email back from the buyer saying that they were in fact still selling the items. That if they were interested they could be dropped off the very next day.

It was pretty convenient that he didn't need to pick it up himself. The gaming cabinet would most definitely not fit into a car. That would probably be a hassle if he had to get the stuff himself.

So he sent an email back inquiring about when the items can be dropped off, and if it was possible he could just buy the gaming stuff.

Not two minutes passed before he gets an email response saying that it can be dropped off anytime really and that it was all a package deal. That Gordon couldn't just pay for half of it.

Well that's annoying Gordon thought to himself. But on the plus side he was going to pay a really good price for a bunch of things he wanted and he could always just bring the things he didn't want to the dump. It wasn't that big of a deal. 

Unless it was broken or something.

So he sent back an email to the person telling him his address and that six PM would be a good time to drop it off. That was after Gordon would be home from work, though he didn't put that part in the message obviously.

He then went to bed for the night as it was now quite late, he had spent a long time on his phone.

\- - - -

The day came and went so slowly for Gordon. He was just too excited about getting the gaming cabinet later that night. Working was just so slow for him it felt like everything dragged on and on.

Luckily the day was finally over and he was going home. Away from his boring job and towards something that would make him so happy.

He really hoped having the gaming cabinet around would make him brighten up a little bit. Make things a little more cheery and happy when his son wasn't around.

Joshua would probably love to play on the thing. Plus I had two players so they could play together. And joshua's old man could show him a thing or two about old school hardcore video games.

Gorden grinning ear-to-ear, he was so excited for this.

Immediately after though, he was completely confused. It seemed that the gaming cabinet was on his lawn, beside a box of other things. 

This was quite peculiar because it wasn't even 6 PM. It was only 5:45 as Gordon got home a little bit early from work today. Though the time wasn't even the weirdest part, that was the fact that no one was there. Not a moving van or truck, nor a person he could give the pay to.

Gordon cautiously walked up to the stuff and looked at everything. All the stuff that was on the kijiji listing was there, but there was no person anywhere. He looked all around the outside of his house and even up and down the street but there was no one around.

Okay that was very strange, why would it just be there? Didn't the cellar want to be paid for their items? It just didn't make very much sense.

Walking back up to the gaming cabinet he noticed and note taped to the screen.

“ Take good care of them Gordon Freeman.” it read.

How the fuck did tbis person know his name and why did they just leave the items? Are they stolen? Or something worse?

Gordon looked over the contents in the box and the gaming cabinet one more time. Everything seemed in the up and up. So why was it left here?

He quickly pulled out his phone and sent an email to the seller. Hoping he would get a response. Because who in their right mind would just give out this stuff for free. There had to be some sort of alternative motive.

But as he stood there he received no new messages. He waited for a few more minutes before he decided he needed to go inside. The weather was starting to turn bad and he couldn't just stay out there.

Shit

He couldn't just leave the stuff outside, could he? No. Even though he's very confused about the situation around it, het can just leave the stuff out in the rain. So he brought it in with him, which took quite a bit of effort to move.

Once he was inside he immediately sat down on his couch. He could hear the rain starting to pour down behind him through his window. Luckily he got everything just in time. Gordon was extremely tired though, all that stuff was very heavy.

Gordon pulled out his phone after hearing a buzz. It seemed he got an email back, though it was not as enlightening as he thought it would be.

It just said that, Gordon seemed like a responsible person to be taking care of these items well. He had to treat them well?

What was he, a babysitter? If that was the case these items are now Gordon's, he's not giving them back. Even if half of it was junk he didn't want.

Gordon stared at the gaming cabinet, or he guessed Security Quest. It was exactly how he remembered it. In fact he wouldn't be surprised if this was the exact one that used to be at his local video game arcade! It had to be, if it was home made where else would it have come from?

So he got up from his couch and pushed it nicely against the wall and plugged it into a nearby outlet. Then he went to the back of it and found a switch that he turned on. The screen immediately came to life and a loud noise of a song played from the gaming cabinet.

Excitement immediately took over Gordon as he walked to the front of it to play. He then realized that he didn't actually have the tokens to play it, nor the keys to open up and take the tokens out of it. That was a huge drawback. How can you even play it without tokens? Was there a way of disabling it or something.

Gordan randomly pressed the button and it just seemed to go. The game started playing even though we didn't add any tokens to the machine. Maybe it was already programmed to go without tokens? Maybe if the seller actually talked to him he would know what was going on right now.

No we didn't worry about this for too long, he could play it. Putting his hands on the buttons and the joystick he started to play the game. And it was a blast from the fucking past.

Exactly how we remembered it and exactly how hard he remembered it. Gordon must be more rustier than he thought, as he died on the very first stage to an alien. No worry though if he could just continue to play on he would get back into the groove of things. He was sure he would get better at it if he just kept at it.

That's how the night quickly got eaten up as he kept on playing it non stop for the next few hours. Only when he was so hungry he couldn't keep on playing did he stop. Even though he hadn't gotten much farther then he did on his first attempt. Though he was improving little by little, it just seemed to be a very hard game.

He quickly made himself a meal and ate it. He wanted to have as much time as possible so he could go back to playing the video game.

\----

Well he was walking back into his living room he was startled by a large noise. It seems that the box that was housing the other electronics had been knocked over.

How could that have possibly happened? It wasn't like it was about to fall over before he left. Maybe he just didn't notice?

Anyways he needed to pick up the stuff and put it away. He did not want the stuff clogging up his ground. Gordon might accidentally step on the small Tamagotchi by accident.

It seemed all 5 items had fallen out of the box somehow. So Gordon reached down and picked them up.

First he picked up the Tamagotchi as it was the smallest. It had a bright orange and yellow design to it. It seemed it was out of batteries as nothing was appearing on the screen. Maybe he could throw a few batteries in it later and give it to his son.

After picking that up he then picked up the hospital pager. It was mostly black with a company logo he didn't recognize on it. This one was simply power down, as when he turned on the switch it turned back on. Though because he didn't really use pagers he did not really have a use for this.

“I should probably throw this and the computer out,” Gordon mumbled to himself.

He tossed the pager into the box and grabbed the next item. This item was the NES. Hopefully he could plug this into its TV. He didn't know if his modern TV even had the correct ports. Luckily the gaming system seems to have two controllers and a copy of punch out. Man Gordon didn't even notice this earlier. Even more free things.

Gordon gently put that in the Box. Then he grabbed the huge lug of a computer. This was the old Macintosh that he got. Gordan really had no use for this. His phone had more processing power than this. And he didn't even really have any nostalgia for the old computer. So into the box it went.

The last thing Gordon picked up was the Game Boy. It was a dark blue colour and was completely covered in random stickers. Mostly stickers of dogs and other animals, along with random things like stars. 

This was clearly a Child's favourite toy. It almost made Gordon sad thinking that he took it from them. Though that person had probably forgotten about this Game Boy if it wasn't in there possession. 

Maybe he could peel off stickers and play some of the games he remembered from his childhood. He could probably get them pretty cheap online.

So he powered this to see if it still had a charge. The normal gameboy screen came on then blackness. Well that made sense there was no game in it. He should probably just...

“Oh hello! My name is Tommy, what's yours?” The system said to him.

He looked down at his hands and saw that the screen had a face on it now. A childlike face that had a pinwheel hat on it.

The fuck? What was this type of game? He could have swore there was nothing in the system.

" Did you not hear me? I said my name is Tommy!". The system repeated at him, looking at him with a worried look. It actually sounded quite clear we're coming from a GB.

"My name is Gordon... Oh wait that's stupid I need to type that."He mumbled to himself as a staredown at the console. Really why would he think the thing would be able to hear him talk. This must be some sort of game that's on it?

" It's nice to meet you gordon!!" The system said back at him as the face turned extremely happy.

Gordon immediately dropped it on the ground at the realization.

What is the fuck just happened? Did it just hear him?


	2. A Possible Concussion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post last week but I got bizy with my birthday. But on the plus side I have something really cool pland for next chapter, that isn't just me updaing the story lol. (Updated now it's in this chapter)

_Work had been longer than normal for him recently. They had a new big project at work so that means he needs to do overtime. It was very annoying for him. Stressing him out to no end. Because before at least he would be able to come home and enjoy dinner with his son, even if it was a late dinner at 8._

_Seeing his son for that hour, even though it was quite a small amount of time, was the best part of his day. He honestly didn't even like his work that much, but it was what he had to do to put food on the table. It was what he had to do to make sure his son was healthy and happy. Or at least he thought it was._

_You see now that he was coming home late, he didn't really have time to talk to his son. He would sit down with him and talk about his troubles at school. He would reassure his son, telling him that he really loved him_

_Unfortunately though because of the project he had not been seeing his son as much. So he had not been able to talk to him._

_So on this particular day when he was coming home he was surprised to see the maid outside smoking. Normally she would be cleaning the dishes from the night, not out here having a cig. Something must be up._

_“Hello Helen. How was my son today?” He said as he walked up to her. He gently placed his briefcase down beside his legs._

_“Kids seemed to have a rough day. I tried talking to him but he wouldn't say anything, just locked himself in his room.” She mumbled back to him, taking a long drag on a cigarette. She seems to be very upset by this. "Very different from this morning when he was excited to get his Game Boy."_

_“Was it the other kids at school?” He simply asked her. The kids at his son's school always bullied him for being different._

_The maid flicked some ash off her cigarette then turned to look at him. "Always is. Doesn't matter what school he goes to, they always treat him like shit.”_

_“Thank you Helen, I think I'll go talk to my son right now then.” He calmly said as he walked into the house._

_Without bothering to put away any of his things, he went upstairs and knocked on his son's door. He needed to talk to him right away. Make his boy feel better._

_“I already told you I'm not hungry, please just leave me alone,” His son said to him through the door. He sounded miserable, his voice was hoarse like he was crying only a moment ago._

_“It's me,” He said to the door as he leaned in closer to it. He could feel his heart crushing, he hated knowing that his son was in pain. “Helen told me something happened today, care to tell me what transpired?”_

_A long moment seemed to pass before his son decided to speak back to him, “Do you think I'm stupid?”_

_“Why of course not, I know for a fact you're very intelligent.” He quickly responded to his son trying to reassure him._

_“Then why does everyone I ever meet always say that to me? All I want to do is make friends, but no one ever wants to be my friend.” He could hear his son slowly move towards the door then lead on it. "I tried so hard today. I thought if I got the game everyone was playing, people would be my friends. But as soon as I opened my mouth people just told me to leave.”_

_..._

_Why can't I just make friends with everyone?_

\----

Gordon was staring very intensely down at the ground. Down at the device that seemingly knew his name. Talked to him like it was a thing that it did. Something that defied everything he's ever known.

A fucking Game Boy that seem to have unearthly intelligence. Makes perfect sense!

“Okay what the fucking shit is going on here? No way in hell this is really happening to me. I swear to god right now, this just has to be some sort of trick.” Gordon started yelling to himself in disbelief. His one hand was touching his head and gripping tightly to it. He just couldn't believe that this was happening. This all was just too stressful.

Gordon started to take a few steps away from the gane boy that was on the ground. He didn't want to be anywhere near it. This thing made no sense to him. He had to get away from it.

Unfortunately for Gordon it seemed like something was behind him. A thing that was not there a moment beforehand. Placed exactly at his foot, knocking him right over. Right into the nearby coffee table.

CLUNK

His head had hit the edge of the coffee table, making him start to pass out from the head wound. Soon darkness took over all his senses and there was nothing.

\----

" so uh... you should really not talk to him. you know what g-man said, we need to keep a low profile...."

" I couldn't help it! You know it's polite to introduce yourself, and I really wanted to know what his name was!"

"... i'm pretty sure we were told his name already, it was feetman or whatever... just try to stay silent until I figure out the situation. okay tommy ...?"

"Okay I guess so. It's just so boring being so lifeless!"

"you don't have to tell me twice, I hate doing it as well… but it's for the greater good or whatever. and if the human does do something, well- "

Ugh, Gordon mumbled to himself as he started to wake up. He could swear he heard some sort of voice but it was so hard to tell past dizziness in his head.

Gordon slowly opened one eye then the other. He was staring at his roof for a good moment before he turned over and looked around at his surroundings. He couldn't stay staring at the roof all day

Everything was swaying for a moment but slowly everything went into place. The room was exactly how it was before he passed out. Not a hair seems to be out of place. Even the new electronics he had gotten were exactly where he left them, in the box beside the arcade cabinet.

Gordon closed his eyes and thought. He was trying to remember why he was even on the ground in the first place. His head was hurting him immensely, so he probably hit it.

Ever so slowly he brought himself up to sit up. He really hoped he didn't get a concussion, but knowing his luck probably did. Another thing he had to deal with.

Though what led him to falling again? It had to be something. He looked on the ground to see if there was anything out of the ordinary but there was nothing for him to trip on.

He rose to his feet so he was standing. He wobbled quite a bit while he was doing this, as it was hard to keep steady footing for him. He had a horrible headache sitting in.

Looking down at the table beside him he noticed that luckily, there was no blood on it. Reaching up and touching his head agreed with the statement as no blood came off his forehead. Though there did seem to be a big swollen part on his head. That probably wasn't very good.

Also on the table, he noticed the Game boy. As he stared down on it more he realized that that wasn't supposed to be there. In fact it was supposed to be on the floor. Because he dropped it. Because the thing was talking to him and it knew his name.

Gordon almost stumbled over a second time after realizing the shock of what happened. This time he steadied himself from falling over. He did not want to suffer more damage to his head than he already got.

So he just stood there staring intently down at the Game Boy. Was what he remembered truly what happened? It couldn't be right? It was just something he made up when he knocked over his head. There was no way the Game Boy was talking to him.

So he ever so slowly walked over the device and looked at it. It looked completely normal, like Gordon himself had placed it on the table. The power was off so obviously nothing was playing on it. Exactly like it should be.

Gordon slowly reached over and picked it up, treating it like it was a bomb. With delicate hands he slowly turned the thing on. To be met with exactly what you thought would happen.

The startup screen then nothing.

Exactly like what was supposed to happen when there were no cartridges in a Game boy. There was no face talking to him, knowing Gordon's name because he told them. Just absolutely nothing. Like it should be

Something was extremely wrong. Gordon knew that he trusted himself above all else and he remembered very clearly that this was talking to him. But... He did knock his head. Maybe it was a dream?

Was he really going to believe that the game boy came to life and knew his name, over the fact that he probably just made it up after he knocked his head off the table.

He wasn't crazy, he knew that for sure. So it just had to be some crazy thing his mind had made up.

But it still was bugging him greatly. No matter how much he tried to convince himself that this was not true he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. 

So he took the Gamevboy and put it in the box with all the other electronics. Taking the box and bringing it to a nearby closet. Putting it in there and closing it in there.

Well out of sight out of mind, or at least that's how the saying goes. Maybe if he didn't see the stuff then he wouldn't think about what happened. Or at least that's what he hoped.

Turning back towards the living room he noticed the gaming cabinet. Well he couldn't do much about this, but that didn't matter too much. This whole crazy plan was just for him to get this cabinet, so there was no way he was putting this away in the closet.

Though it did seem off to him. He stared at it intently, he just felt something he couldn't quite place. Maybe it was just the worry about what just happened? Plus the fact that the items had a weird way of coming to him. It must just be that.

Gordon briefly considered continuing to play the system but he thought better of it. It was getting quite late and he had to get to work tomorrow pretty early. So with one final glance he went upstairs.

\----

The next day seemed to drag on way longer than the previous day had. This time it wasn't because of Gordon's excitement but his worry about the day before. 

He had luckily not gotten a concussion, so at the very least he didn't have to worry about that. Everything else was worrying to him.

After thinking about it most of the day he had convinced himself that there was nothing weird with the game boy, he hoped. What happened must have been a dream of his own making. It was the only logical explanation.

It must have been brought on by his worry about how the objects were left at his house. It was very suspicious, so much so it had to make him think up crazy ideas. Like the reason that was left at his house was because they were hunted or something shit.

Gordon knew exactly what he was going to do now though. He was going to forget his worries. Ignore it all and just go through that box, sort it.

He knew what he wanted to keep and what he wanted to throw out. So he should find a home for the things he wanted. Hopefully once everything was sorted and put away he could put all the worries past him.

As the day closed he drove home from work. After driving into his parking lot he took a long look around his front lawn. Something was going to be amess he could feel it. He just felt like what was currently happening was only going to be the tip of the iceberg.

But it seemed like nothing was out there. He decided to come back inside instead of standing outside looking around his front lawn like a maniac.

Once Gordon was inside he noticed what seemed like something that was going to keep on happening happened. The box that was containing all the electronics had somehow fallen out of the closet and was scattered throughout the ground.

Okay serious were these items trying to break themselves or something? Maybe he should replace the box if it keeps on falling over for really no reason. Like Gordon was pretty sure that box couldn't have been able to be pushed over and of the closet.

It was very suspicious.

It Looked like he had to pick everything up again, but he guess that wasn't the worst thing. He wanted the sort through it anyway.

The first thing he picked up was that little Tamagotchi that was in there. Or at least that's what it said on the front of the little device. He flipped it around looking at the front and the back. It seems pretty simple to him, though he'd never owned one of these devices in his life. 

He decided to take out his phone and look up what a tomodachi really was. He found out simply what it was, which it made sense as it was a little virtual pet. 

It seemed to take some watch batteries so at least that part was easy to get. He had some in his cupboard drawer that he went and got.

After putting in the batteries he waited a moment trying to see if it started. It didn't seem to have any life so he started to button mash the little buttons on it. That also can't seem to turn it on.

So again he went to his phone and looked up how to make it work. Google had told him that there was a little button on the back that he had to push in. So after finding an old bobby pin from his wife he pushed the button in and waited 10.

Nothing seemed to happen. He did it once more to see if maybe he didn't wait long enough. That seemed to do nothing though as the device was still powered off. He took one last look on his phone to make sure that was the correct button, which it definitely was. 

It was the batteries? No it couldn't be they were brand new. Well it didn't seem like this was such a big deal if it was broken. It didn't seem that Tamagotchis were that expensive or rare. He could probably just throw it out.

He walked over to his garbage can. Well he should probably just throw it out now as it was small enough to. So he opened up the garbage can with his foot and brought the Tomodachi over to toss it out.

“No no don't do that! You can't throw my dog out!” A voice cried from the other room.It was the same voice he remembered.

He looked back into his living room and saw the Game Boy was on the ground lit up. Showing the exact same face he remembered seeing before he got knocked out.

Well at least he knew his brain wasn't making anything up. But what the fuck was going on here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by: https://drawlii.tumblr.com/ go check them out!
> 
> Next chapter questions get answered... hopefully.


	3. Let's Freak Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added something to the last chapter so go back to see some lovely art.

_She was very bored right now and really wished she had her Tamagotchi. It was her favourite game to play when she had nothing else to do. Especially when it was very boring like where she was now ._

_You see right now she was waiting at the veterinarian's office. Waiting well the veterinarians we're taking care of her dog. He had eaten a bad thing and now they had to remove it from._

_Or that was at least what her mom had told her, right before rushing her out of the door to go to this very veterinarian's office. So because of this she didn't have time to grab her prized Tamagotchi. It was pretty lame._

_Which was even more bad because she hadn't checked up on it in a few hours. Hopefully nothing too bad had happened to it, she really didn't want to have to reset the thing and get a new pet. It made such an annoying beeping sound when it was dying._

_“Mom how much longer are we going to be here for? Is the dog going to be out anytime soon?” She knew that the dog was here for a reason but she was getting really bored. She was sure he was fine._

_They had been there for like an hour or something. It was like taking forever. The seats were so very uncomfortable which just made matters worse._

_Her mom looked very worried as she looked down at her daughter. “I know but we need to stay here until the veterinarian tells us if they got it out of him or not.” Her mom then put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She was trying to make her daughter feel a little bit better._

_“I wish you at least let me grab my Tamagotchi before we left.” She responded back to her mother. She really didn't want to be impatient or anything like that. It's just that she never really wanted to have nothing to do, and having her Tamagotchi was a good distraction from that._

_“...” Her mom looked at her for a moment with a look in her eye that the daughter couldn't quite get. Maybe like there was something that she didn't want to tell her daughter._

_" What's wrong Mom? Are you really worried that something's going to happen to him?” She hadn't really thought about the fact that their dog could possibly die. Maybe that's what her mom was worried about._

_“Uhhh... Well to tell you the truth it's-" Her mother started to respond to her before she was interrupted by the receptionist. Her mother was being called over to the desk. So her mom got up and walked to it._

_She did hope whatever her mom was going to say to her wasn't too bad. She couldn't take her if her mom said her dog was probably going to die. She did love him very dearly. It would crush her._

_She sat there waiting for a moment watching the two talk for a while. The world felt silence as she just sat there watching their lips move. Like if she paid enough attention she could learn lip reading and know what they were talking about. But she obviously couldn't so she just sat there and waited for her mom to come back._

_The look on her mom's face got worse and worse as the receptionist talked to her. That didn't seem like good news. Something must have gone wrong. It just had to be! Why else would she have that look?_

_Her mom slowly walked back to her and sat down on the set. She turned over and looked her daughter in her eyes. "Well I guess I'll get the easy part out of the way. While you were outside I was cleaning your room for you and well… The Dog was in there with me and he seemed to be in there for quite a while even before I was. He was laying on your bed where you normally keep your Tamagotchi and well…. Your Tamagotchi is gone forever now... But we can get you a new one!”_

_..._

_The dog had eating her Tamagotchi and it was stuck inside of him._

\----

Oh yes everything was fitting in place apparently. He had found out that he was in fact not going crazy and that the... Game Boy was talking to him. Somehow.

Okay seriously what the fuck was he going to even do. It was right over there just sitting there like it was supposed to, on the ground with everything else. Just being there like it owned the place and that spot. Like this was a horror movie or something.

“Why are you talkin to me? What the fuck is even going on here? I feel like this really can't be happening but it is apparently. Please tell me exactly, how are you talking to me?” Gordon started rambling to the Game Boy in panic. He was staring down at the Game Boy with so much more intensity than he ever had before.

Like if he stopped looking at it it would grow legs like a spider and attack him. But I guess that could be a possibility because it's talking to him. Apparently anything can go now, what next is the TV going to start singing to him? 

“Well I was sort of told not to but I can't really help it. You were about to throw up my dog, I can't let you do that to Sunkist!” The game system said back to him with a quite worried tone. Like it's possible for the thing to be worried. Because apparently it was sentient. 

He really can't get over this fact.

Gordon couldn't quite see the screen very clearly from where he was standing so he walked up closer to the Game Boy. He could vaguely see the face before but he couldn't quite make out all too clearly. So he started the walk up very carefully towards the system.

Unsurprisingly the face it was displaying was quite worried. It seems not to be staring at him but at the Tomodachi in his hand. Almost like if it had hands would be reaching out to try and grab it. Get it away from Gordon.

“How is this thing your dog? Last time I checked, I don't think game boys can own anything? Or are sentient for that matter?” he was hoping the thing would tell him what really what's going on. “Plus the fact that it's busted so it's not much to anyone anymore”.

The face on the screen changed to a one of annoyance at what he said. “That's very rude, my dog's Sunkist is totally worth alot to me. Thank you very much. Besides it won't respond to you, it only turns on when I call it.” A sound that Gordon could only guess resembled I Whistle then played out of the system.

Gordon was confused for a second before looking down at the Tamagotchi in his hand. Sure enough it had turned on and there was a dog displayed on it. Though the device can only display very few pixels, so it wasn't detailed.

Nevertheless though, it was quite indeed a dog, and it seemed to be barking. Could this type of device even do this? Wait nevermind that wasn't the important part. The more important part was how the other device did it. Like it actually had control over it.

Gordon took the hand that was holding the dog tamagotchi and faced it as far as ways he could from the Game Boy. He wanted to make sure it was in the complete opposite direction from the Game Boy thar was in front of him. 

“Okay that was really weird but I... I Need to figure out what's going on with you! Tell me everything, tell me why you're talking to me and how you're even able to do it! Or I will throw this thing in the trash where it belongs".

The device quickly panicked upon hearing Gordon's threat to it. " Well I think I can try but not very good at it? My dad said something about our souls being trapped in this device. Though I'm not very clear on why it happens." The device, or I guess Tommy as he referred to before, poorly tried to explain to him.

Gordon was quite confused by this explanation. It was talking about souls being trapped in the device? What was this, a poorly made Creepypasta? 

" What are you talking about souls? Like was someone's Soul put in a gameboy or something? This is completely batshit crazy if this was real, no way I would believe that a million years.” But yet he was talking to a Game Boy. Something he would have never thought would happen, because it made no sense. So it could happen 

Gordon used both his hands and grabbed his head in frustration. He can't deal with what was going on, he needed a logical explanation. 

“ Well I don't know too much about the nitty gritty of why this happened. I just know because of our passing and how we died, we ended up here like this. You should probably ask Dr. Coomer more about this.” the Game Boy named Tommy said to him before realizing his mistake. " Oh uh never mind what I said!"

“There's more of you? Like in the world or of the rest of the items I have?” Gordon then backed up once again as he stared down at the items on the ground. Could they all be sentient? If a Game Boy and the Tamagotchi were then why not the rest. 

“Oh yeah, I am talking about a different game from somewhere else. Me and Sunkist are the only items here that can talk.” The Game boy lamely replied to him. Obviously this was a lie as he seemed to not be very good at doing it.

Gordon stared down at the items on the ground. Then at the Tamagotchi that was in his hand. And finally looking at the Game boy on the ground. If they were all sentient does that mean they could hear him right now? 

The old computer and the NES had to have a power supply right? Plus a TV for the NES's case. He already checked out the pager and that didn't work, unless it was just pretending to not work. Could just be a big ruse by the items to pretend to be off.

You know electronic equipment, pretending to not work when they can. Pretending to be not sentient cuz that's the thing they do. Gordon really sounded crazy thinking about this.

Gordon then suddenly slapped himself in the face. He did it quite hard, in hope's he would wake up out of whatever was happening. No unfortunately when you look down everything is the same. The Game Boy still had a face looking up at him. Now he just looked consumed why Gordon just did that to himself 

You know what screw everything! He should probably be very worried about what was happening right now, and truly he was. Probably going to end up in a mental asylum, never going to see Joshua again. But he needed to know what this thing was talkin about.

So he reached down and picked up the Game Boy with his hands. Taking the device yet again into his hands and just walking out his front door. Making sure that he closes it behind him.

He then walks around his house until he was in his backyard. Where he just sat down in the grass. Just there quietly for a moment before he has to face the music. Just to think about everything. How his life ended up here.

Then he looks at the game boy in his hand. His peace can't last forever, it never can.

“Why are we out here Gordon?” hearing the system say that Gordon wentz to himself. He doesn't like hearing that this thing knew his name, though he was the one that did tell it. He really shouldn't have done that.

“Because I don't want any of the other ones to hear. I don't believe you, I think you're lying to me because you blew your own cover. It's the only explanation.” Well there were other explanations but he didn't really want to go into that territory.

He helped none of his neighbours were out and about today. If they overheard him seemingly talking to himself he didn't know how he could explain it. But he just needed to get away from all the other apparent prying ears.

“Well yeah you're right. The rest of them are also like me. The person that I named earlier, Dr. Coomer is the NES. Though truly he knew a lot about what I was trying to explain to you.”tThe game boy named Tommy responded back to him. 

As Gordon held him in his hands he really realized how to pixel art person on the screen did seem to be talking. Moreover still that it was moving and reacting to everything he was saying. The slightly poor quality voice that was coming out of the speakers was matching up exactly to what the pixel art mouth was saying to him. Looking at him like this really made him seem more alive. Well unless this was just some sort of thing that Gordon was making it up.

It seemed Gordon had to come to terms that this was really actually happening to him.

“Okay Tommy? You did say your name was Tommy right?” To this he received a little nod by the person on screen. “I'm going to be real with you. This honestly makes no sense to me and I can't believe I'm saying this but… I Just want to keep this conversation between me and you right now. Can you please, as best as you can, explain to me how you are sentient? I don't even want to think about adding other people into this equation.”

“If I do, can you give me back dog Sunkist?” He seemed like he really wanted his dog back. Though it didn't make much sense cuz he didn't have any arms to even hold the Tamagotchi with.

Gordon took a deep sigh and agreed to what Tommy had asked of him. 

He then placed both the items on the ground together beside each other. The dog, Sunkist, barked happily at being placed beside his supposed owner. Tommy also seemed to have a big smile and eased up a little bit knowing he was beside his dog. Or at least it seemed that way.

“To get us started I guess, I've always been sentient? Because before I was like this I was a human. A human who died in a very unfortunate way that I don't want to talk about. Anyways somehow my soul got trapped in this little box. I've been living out my life in this Game Boy without being able to pass on to the afterlife. It's fine though I actually quite like it.” 

Well at least that made sense to what he was saying before. About his soul being stuck in it. But why would that happen though, you would think that if it was possible for a soul to be stuck in something it would be more known about. There would be more items that had ghosts attached to them.

Gordon asked this question to Tommy hoping that he had an answer to it.

“Well I always thought that we were like this because it was electronics? At least that's what I think I could be wrong.” Gordon could tell that Tommy was telling the truth when he answered this. He seemed like he genuinely didn't know why he was stuck like this.

Gordan closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He felt like screaming all this frustration out. Though it wasn't just because of what Tommy was telling him, it was because of everything. He just needed to give himself a moment to process it all.

”So the others are just like you, the other items in my house?” Gordon asked Tommy.

“ Yeah all the other items that came in the box are just like me, dead,” Tommy sadly responded.

Sunkist barked at Tommy at hearing his tone of voice. He could probably hear the sadness and understand it.

“And this Tamagotchi is like a real dog?” Gordon questioned him back. “How can a dog's Soul be trapped in a little electronic device?”

“As far as I do know he is a real dog. I don't know how he died though, or how his soul is stuck.” Tommy said back to him as he looked at his dog. “Ne and him are together forever though. We are best friends and we're always going to stick together no matter how or why we died. It just doesn't matter.”

It was actually quite cute in a weird way. Seeing the two together, honestly enjoying each other's company. Like a real person and their dog, even though they were far from it. It honestly seems so real to Gordon, real emotions he would never expect to see from an electronic device.

“You said there was a person named, Dr. Coomer? Who would know more about what's going on?” Gordon asked Tommy.

“Yes, he and my father knew the most about this. My father isn't with us anymore so we can't really ask him.” It seems like Tommy's father knew about him being stuck in the Game Boy. Gordon wondered where he was now then.

“Well I think there's only one option really.” Gordan said as he stood up from the grass. He quickly dusted off his pants making sure no leaves or grass came up with him.

“What is it?” Tommy said, giving him a quizzical look.

“ I think I need to get my old TV that will support the NES from the basement." Gorden then picked up Tommy and started to walk to the front of the house. It seemed like he needed to face the other devices to figure out everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by: https://drawlii.tumblr.com/ ^^
> 
> We will meet more bois next chapter


End file.
